The 74-year-old Freeman is a five-time Oscar nominee who won the supporting-actor prize for 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby.” Freeman’s Oscar nominations include best actor for 1989’s “Driving Miss Daisy,” for which he won a Golden Globe.

The DeMille Award went to Robert De Niro a year ago. Other past winners include Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood, who directed Freeman in “Million Dollar Baby.”